


even abnormal ones can live.

by arurun



Series: not so human after all. [3]
Category: Katekyou Hitman Reborn!
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - Spirits, Fallen Angel! Gokudera, Fallen Angels, Gen, Land Deity! Hibari, Namimori Town (Katekyou Hitman Reborn!), Seasonal Spirits and Guardians, Shapeshifter! Yamamoto, Shapeshifting, Spirits, Vengeful Spirit! Mukuro, Youkai, in which Namimori is a hideout for the supernatural, kinda-a-Ghoul! Chrome
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-08
Updated: 2020-09-19
Packaged: 2021-02-27 14:15:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,324
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22168480
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/arurun/pseuds/arurun
Summary: Reborn might be the most normal one in the family right now.Coming into Namimori, Reborn finds that all the reports are dead wrong. The deaf kid's definitely not deaf; the prefect exudes the aura of a god, and some animal keeps freaking Leon out.The town of Namimori is some supernatural hideout. Reborn's almost entirely sure of that.
Series: not so human after all. [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1634437
Comments: 14
Kudos: 308





	1. the one who can hear.

**Author's Note:**

> hello :) hope you enjoy this?

“Sawada Tsunayoshi, clinically declared 85% deaf in both ears,” the hitman reads again from the files he’d been given, and genuinely he finds it difficult to believe.

When Reborn first met Sawada Tsunayoshi, thirteen-year-old with a flair for terrible grades, he wasn’t surprised to see the hearing aids tucked behind his earlobes. He was surprised to find them custom-made to tune  _ backwards _ , which meant that those devices weren’t enhancing his hearing-- they were  _ muffling  _ it further. 

That, by all means, did not add up to equal  _ makes sense _ .

He watches Tsuna from the tree by his class window, and by the way the child isn’t really paying attention in class, Reborn can discern that he reports were right. If the child can’t hear well, it would make sense that he finds it difficult to concentrate in class.

Except, everything about him was horrendous. He had a terrible track record, failed at every sport, burned everything he was set to cook, and was bullied but bore with it like a wimp.

“He’s the exact opposite of boss material,” Reborn’s exasperated, “this is almost a worse case than Dino.”

He smirks.

“He might be fun to tutor.”

For a second, Tsuna seems to look in his direction curiously, but Reborn ducks away in time. Surely, that was just a coincidence, right?

Later, Reborn makes his appearance in Tsuna’s room, introduces himself, and reveals Tsuna’s legendary lineage. Reborn is utterly disappointed when the boy stoically nods in response, not at all surprised by a single thing he said.

“Uh... is, is… uh, Reborn…-san, is that why you were… looking at-- watching, me from out-- spying on me?” instead, the boy asks.

He’s stuttering like a newborn lamb, but it’s still unnaturally accepting of his situation. Any other civilian would be shrieking disbelieving claims, because proof or not, Reborn was an  _ infant _ , for god’s sake. Whoever doesn’t think he’s suspicious would be the weirder party.

“Oh, you noticed?” Reborn makes himself sound pleasantly amused, and he really is to be honest, “I thought I hid myself pretty well too.”

Already, he was reassessing this boy. Maybe he wasn’t as Dame as he expected him to be, after all…

“Yeah, I- I could, I could hear you talking out- outsi-- on that tree,” says the boy, rubbing at his arm as a nervous tick, “and… they uh, they were talking-- gossiping? Like, a lot, all about you, all about you because you’re a… baby... in a suit. I mean, so the spi--  _ they  _ thought you were… weird, I mean, un, unusual! and the town’s been.. A lot noisier since you… last night.”

Reborn, by habit, first observes the boy’s speech habits.

He’s timid. He speaks in soft tones, as if he’s fearful of speaking too loud. He acts nervous, but the stuttering is ingrained into him by nature and absolutely not a temporary matter. It’s hard to catch what he’s saying because he speaks in vague parts, but Reborn thinks he can understand the general idea.

Except, that doesn’t make sense either.

“You… heard me speaking, on the tree,” he repeats carefully, skeptical. He had been muttering under his breath, separated by meters, a wall, a window, and about three rows of tables.

Tsuna looks at him, his head tilted aside curiously as if wondering what was wrong about that.

“Alright then,” Reborn doesn’t think he’ll get anything out of questioning that part. “And gossip?” he inquires, because he’s very sure he has not shown himself to a single soul in this town yet. He’s hidden himself in the trees since he arrived last night, so no one should know him yet in this town, no rumours shouldn’t be spread around about him just yet.

_ Wait, how did Tsuna know Reborn arrived last night? _

Tsuna nods meekly, “uh, well, uhm, I guess, everyone’s… talking about you,” the boy explains and somehow that only raised more questions than it tried to answer, “they’re… saying that you smell, you have the-- you smell like… blood? and gunpowder? And… and, and uh, what’s Hermes Cologne?”

Through his sentence the boy looks around frantically, as if searching for invisible sources in his room. His voice fades out, and soon he’s just staring at his knees, unsure.

Reborn has a lot of questions, but by the way this conversation is going, Reborn thinks it’s wiser not to ask any of them. He’s too bitty.

Instead, he folds his arms and decides sharply, “well then, since you understand the situation, I’ll be staying here from now on. Get ready for hell.”

He was going to need a complete overhaul on all that data he had. First of all, this boy was definitely the exact opposite of deaf!

-

Reborn’s interference in Tsuna’s life was, vaguely described,  _ confusing _ . 

Two days before his actual arrival, there’s an uproar. A group of rough men voices gossip like old ladies in a shopping mall. Something about a baby that will terrorize them all. A few children keep asking what Mafia is, but no one’s willing to answer that. Someone who claims to have been killed by an ‘sun rainbow infant’ is telling everyone to escape.

The voices are far away, so Tsuna, as usual, pays no mind to it.

Until he hears footsteps too light for even an infant. He hears the rustle of a fedora against the wind in the other side of town, and a chameleon croaks softly about a long journey.

Through daybreak he hears them getting closer.

He tries to understand what ‘Ciaossu’ meant, but before he could ask his mother, he hears Hibari Kyouya grumble irritably on the school building. Maybe he’s in a bad mood, so Tsuna wisely decides he’ll leave the house a little earlier today. That prefect was scary, after all.

He notes that the kittens beside the florists’ are not hungry this morning. Someone had fed them, they say it was the nice guy at the sushi restaurant. There’s a bird in the sky Tsuna doesn’t recognize. It croaks gently, and Tsuna realizes it’s the chameleon from before.

He dismisses it until he hears it come into school grounds.

Hibari is absent. He must be at the shrine, Tsuna realizes, because that boy will never leave such an intruder unsupervised. Tsuna doesn’t see who it is, he doesn’t try yet. He hears what the infant (that was an infant’s heartbeat. An infant’s pitch of tone) mumbles and whispers to himself. The rustle of papers-- Tsuna realizes that the infant is watching  _ him _ .

He turns to his left hearing aid and casually gives it a half-an-inch crunch upwards. 

He tries not to cringe at the pain that shoots up his head, and the noise that rings sharply into his earlobes like a thorned blade.

He breathes slowly, calmly-- the pain only grows in his head but he cranes his head and listens for it again. He hears the words--  _ Sawada Iemitsu, Boss, Tutor, Heir, Inheritor, Vongola _ . Tsuna yanks the hearing aid down right after that, feeling the ache mellow down to a dull throb.

There was a lot of _blood chaos murder_ _death suffering sorrow_ in that heart. He couldn’t bear another second of it, and tunes out the figure in the tree until school is over.

A little voice under his desk talks about an infant wearing a suit. A bigger voice beside him (which he cannot see cannot see cannot see) wonders why he stank of blood and death. And Hermes Cologne, apparently, they knew because it was their favourite brand or something. Tsuna hears something in the ceiling tell them that _that infant,_ they are fearful, _is more of a monster than we._

Tsuna doesn’t understand what that means, but he never does anyways.

When he finally  _ does  _ meet the infant to his face, he is surprised by how accurate the voices could describe him. They were such avid chit-chatters that they could put Nana to shame. In less than twelve hours, Tsuna could literally picture his appearance so well he almost thought the actual thing was a hallucination due to impatience.

His heritage was of no surprise to him. He’s heard it himself, from the hearts of the very  _ father  _ and  _ grandfather  _ themselves, and the many sounds in town have literally repeated that new revelation like the newest hot topic in the world. He scowls, knowing Hibari would be questioning him for disrupting the peace.

Tsuna didn’t want to deal with this. The voices around him (in his head) chanted oohs and aahs and ‘accept it!’ and ‘my boy is growing up!’ (I am not your boy, actually who even are you?) that Tsuna could barely concentrate on what the infant was saying.

No one has spoken this much to Tsuna in  _ ages _ . He hated speaking and he hated hearing people speak important things to his face. He couldn’t make coherent sentences, he could never hear enough of himself to really hear what he, himself was saying. 

Trying to  _ listen  _ was like trying to make out a whisper while wearing headphones blaring rock songs at full volume.

He wanted to live quietly, effortlessly, somewhere with  _ peace and quiet _ for once. It hasn’t happened yet and somehow everyone wanted to make the noise two times worse than it already is. Tsuna is baffled. Utterly, completely, speechless.

The infant doesn’t listen to reason, apparently, so Tsuna ends up sighing in resignation.


	2. the guardian of the town.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hibari Kyouya is a boy that is alarmingly obsessed with Namimori's wellbeing.
> 
> Of course he would be, he's in charge of it.

Reborn’s idea of training seems to include plenty of explosions and near-death experiences. It irritates Tsuna’s ears too much, but the infant decides that sound torture is a thing and it scares him even more than before.

Tsuna has two days of utter and complete suffering before Hibari sits him down and they have a long, nice talk that has less speaking than it has glaring.

_“Psst, psst, dunno what’cha did, but y’shuld say y’ur sorrey.”_

_“Yeaaaaah, Kyou-chan is piiiiiissed today. He promised us cake so pleeeease make sure he’s still happy for us in the evening, kaaay?”_

_“You said a bad-bad word! I’m gonna tell Nami-nami!”_

Tsuna bites back a laugh, biting the insides of his cheek hard as he chokes up a sputter at the banter. He couldn’t tell exactly where it was coming from, but it wasn’t too far behind him. His gesture doesn’t go unnoticed.

Hibari’s eyes flare up in fury, and with a sharp glance behind Tsuna, he takes a step forward, famous words at his lips. Tsuna freezes shock still.

_“Aaaahhhh!! He’s maaaad, run! Ruuun!”_

_“Run where??? If we could’a ev’r run from’im we’d be free outta da’town!”_

_“Uh-uh, uh, to Nami-nami!!”_

That was it. Tsuna bursts out laughing, and Hibari whirls around with a tonfa in hand to sharply whack him over the head once. Tsuna squeaks, hands held precariously over the bump on his head, but tears prickle at the edge of his eyes as he whines.

“It’s- it’s, it’s not like it’s-- not my fault... they, they gossip… a lot...”

Hibari steps once. Twice.

There’s a long-suffering sigh.

“Bari,” Hibari calls, his voice dry and tired. There’s no response, but Tsuna hears an airy rustle when Hibari says again, “noise.”

The difference isn’t too apparent, but Tsuna knows.

He listens, and the sounds he can hear is a tad more muffled than before. Not absent, but everything is a little further away. He doesn’t hide the relief that pours through him as he breathes out.

He solemnly wishes Hibari had asked them to set up the other barrier instead, the one that completely cancelled out noise from outside as well as inside.

It was the only time in the world that Tsuna ever had any peace and quiet, after all.

“I’ve…” his own voice rings in a clarity he hasn’t heard in ages and that catches him off guard. He turns back to Hibari and manages to say, “I think my da-- my father, is, is finally taking action… about my… yeah.”

Hibari, in face of any other person, would be using those tonfas in his hands at this utterly herbivorous stuttering mess before him. But because it is _Tsuna_ and he understands the younger boy, he does not.

He nods, and gives an acknowledging hum.

“See to it that the infant does not destroy more of Namimori,” Hibari says, and it’s more of a command than anything, “the town is in a disarray from his arrival, but they will settle soon.”

 _It’s not my fault,_ Tsuna doesn’t repeat himself. Instead, he promises, “I’ll try… my best.”

In the same way that he can’t help but listen in on everything in this town, Hibari is an entity that exists to protect the barriers of Namimori. If an infant is who will threaten that perimeter, Hibari will be tasked to take it out.

As much of a strict disciplinarian he is (and as much as he can deny the accusation) Tsuna knows that Hibari, much more than anyone else, tries to be a pacifist.

“I’m-- uh,” Tsuna speaks up again, fiddling with his thumbs, “sorry. Uh, please don’t, don’t uh, bully… those three so much…?”

Hibari raises an eyebrow. Arms folded, he considered Tsuna in a rather curious way, as if asking ‘and why should I do what you say?’ because no one orders Hibari around.

“I- I mean!” Tsuna panics, “Suura, A’shento and Mata-mata, they were just, just looking after me, they-- they, kinda do that a lot… don’t they…? I think they’ve, I think they’re following me around… uh, because, Reborn… I think.”

Tsuna looks up, and Hibari blinks at him, surprised.

Then Tsuna realizes, “oh no, I named them!!”

He’s been told and warned _and lectured_ countless times about naming the voices he hears. Last time he did that, he had to apologize to Yamamoto Tsuyoshi because a spirit possessed his knife and was trapped inside.

Lesson learned, don’t name things unless you’re sure it’s a human voice.

Hibari groans. Only _this_ idiot was capable of _accidentally_ naming something they couldn’t see. Not even that loud herbivore in the boxing club was this dumb.

 **Suura, A’shento, and Mata-mata**. _Slur, Accent, and Repetition_. Definitely names you would give to the voices in your head.

“You are terrible at names,” Hibari decides to say.

And Tsuna squawks, offended, “I don’t want to hear that from you!”

-

Hibari sees the infant a little after that, as more of a coincidence than anything. It takes a second for Hibari to truly understand that this infant was to be feared, and not to be underestimated.

His gun reeks of death, and his posture exudes maturity.

He speaks squeaky and childish, but it doesn’t take much to realize it’s an act. His form-- that is false too. Hibari has seen plenty of situations where things take different forms… this was one of them.

Hibari does not speak to it.

He does not let his guard down. He never does against humans. (If he could still call this cursed thing a human, that is. He reeks of the demon world.)

The infant does not say anything to him either. Simply watches from his distance away, and Hibari could see it in those eyes. A darkness, not unlike yet so different from the ones the war-demons would don.

The fiery gaze of a battle-stricken warrior.

Hibari turns away before his amused smirk reaches his face. He never thought a human could hold those expressions as well. That surely was a very, very interesting infant.

**_“Shall I follow him?”_ **

****

****

The gaspy, grating voice beside him is hollow, emerging from the shadows of the blinds and gleaming from the darkness, with eyes that shone a piercing silver. Its intangible form warps with the flickers of daylight, voice watery against the prefect’s ears.

Hibari takes a breath-- and puts his tonfa on the desk.

“No,” he decides, firm and resolute, “do not interfere with the humans.”

There is a defiant sway in the shadow as the voice responds, **_“but he is troublesome,”_** like a taunting witch, it tantalizes the thoughts. **_“He is shattering-- the_** **peace** ** _of our town.”_** A wind blows and the curtains rustle. Strips of shadows peel from fabric, sliding across the boy’s cheek in a gentle caress once, twice--

Hibari acts. His eyes gleam a piercing purple and his arm swipes across the air. A crater sinks the wall, crushing the curtain into spiderweb-like cracks.

“Did you not hear me?” he warns, his tone icy and cold, “disobey me again, and I will bite you to death.”

His canines show, sharp and not at all incapable of actually devouring the intangible creature.

There is no response.

He raises his hand, and rolls his wrist once.

The wall rejuvenates, new rock seaming across the fragments as time whirls back on the spot, reversing the damage from its broken condition.

The ominous presence is gone completely. Escaped in the sliver of a moment, through the shadows, as they do.

Hibari sucks in an irritated breath, but he lets it go.

“Keibi, go after Ginme,” he lets his order hang in the air for half a moment. “See to it that he is disciplined accordingly.”

From the sunset, the light changes its focal point. A figure in a military uniform bends on his knees, crouches beside Hibari. Its head low and its tone even, it is respectful in his greeting.

_“Yes, sir.”_

It is dismissed.

-

"Nami-nami, Kyou-chan hit us, he hit us!"

"Izanami-sama, Kyou-chan is meeeeean!"

"He hit ma'boo-boo!"

Hibari comes into his house and just glares at the entire world, wondering why his life is like this. First some stupid intruder comes into town without permission, and now these little ones were utter tattletales.

He sees three vaguely-shaped creatures curled up on different sides of a very beautiful woman's lap, and Hibari wonders if he should smack them all another time for good measure. How dare they crawl all over Izanami like that…

“Now, now, Kyou-kun,” the lady says, “forgive them, alright?”

Hibari may be the guardian deity by name, but ultimately, he is simply the guard dog. The creator and the mother of this land, Izanami herself, is the master he serves and honours highly.

He steps forward, and bows on one knee, bowing his head and placing a hand at his chest as a sign of a knight’s loyalty.

With a burst of wind, his school uniform gives way, replaced by a dark purple haori over a black robe. His eyes gleam in a purple shade never before seen, and he speaks with a clarity and humility he would never use on a human.

“I have returned, Izanami-sama,” he says, “the town has been peaceful today as well.”

“I’m sure it has,” Izanami smiles back, warm and loving, “after all, our dear Kyou-kun works so hard every day.”

As the guardian deity that lines the borders of Namimori, Hibari will not fail.


	3. the walls have ears.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yamamoto Takeshi has seen a lot of things.
> 
> It's been a lot of years, but humans never cease to interest him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've decided that keeping a consistent word count is no longer a thing.

Yamamoto finds the little infant, and he’s honestly not sure how to deal with it. He’s on his way home after club practice-- the sun was setting, so why was this infant looking like he’s got a lot on his mind?

Yamamoto puts his bag down by the alley, and follows.

Experience calls, he knows that interesting individuals like these-- they always bring him to cool places. If there’s something Yamamoto can never get enough of, it’s that.

The infant wears a suit. The chameleon-lizard on his head notices their follower before the infant himself does. He whirls his tongue confusedly, but doesn’t alert his owner.

Yamamoto smiles at it, and hesitation doesn’t take his steps. He continues on his trail after them, tracking them from behind trees and among branches.

The infant looks back an uncomfortable amount of times, but Yamamoto doesn’t think he’s being seen. He keeps looking, and seemingly, he grows irritated and more confused with each turn of his head.

Yamamoto holds in a little laughter, realizing that the infant was walking around in a rather large circle. He knows he’s being followed, and he’s trying to lose him before going back. How adorable.

Maybe this was a special baby, like that one from a couple of years back. Thinking back, he hasn’t seen that guy in a long time. Maybe he should pay them a visit. What if he finally grew up? Yamamoto would love to see it…

“Who’s there? Come out.”

It seems his patience was run too thin. Yamamoto eyes the infant again, and this time, there’s a gun between his fingers. There’s a heaviness in the air, a dark, murky feeling sending shots of a threat his way. 

Yamamoto blinks. He really was a lot like the little top-hat baby. _ I think they call it bloodlust. Ah, right,  _ people usually run away when it’s sent at them.

Yamamoto files away his interest in the infant, and keeps it for another day. 

He scurries away from the tree he’s hiding, and ducks into a shortcut toward home. He doesn’t turn back to look at the infant again, it’s not necessary.

Yamamoto thinks he’ll retrieve his bag tomorrow.

For now, he’s probably hungry.

-

Behind him, Reborn sighs with a confusion unbecoming of himself-- his eyes are drawn to Leon as he asks, “a squirrel?”

He thought it felt human.

-

“I’m craving acorns,” Takeshi mutters with only embarrassment in his tone.

Tsuyoshi chortles at that, “don’t speak rubbish, Takeshi,” he puts down his knife, lifts the tray of kaisen-don to the counter. “Take this to the number three.”

“Really, dad, maybe I’ll go out and ask--” 

“You’re not going to talk to squirrels after this. You have homework.”

“But--”

Tsuyoshi gives his son a look, and Takeshi almost pouts. Instead, he barks out in laughter, picking up the tray as he makes a very familiar way to table Three. 

There is something about Tsuyoshi that makes Takeshi want to listen to him, even when he’s ordered around like a parent to his child. 

Maybe it’s the fact that this was the man that picked him up, gave him a name, and taught him how to live. He made the boy feel the little wonders of each day again, and that was a very, very great feeling. 

Even if the man were to tell Takeshi to leave the house or move to another country, Takeshi would do it gladly. Though, maybe that won’t happen this time.

Among everyone he’s ever called ‘dad’ before, Tsuyoshi feels most like it.

“So, there was this little baby walking around town, and he was weird,” Takeshi tells his father again once they’re back to the front of the store, and his father was cleaning his knives.

Tsuyoshi pays attention. Because he knows his son-- if his son thinks something is weird, it may actually be worthy of news.

“They're rare…” Takeshi leans in, hands under his chin, as he thinks, hums, and muses to himself about his apparently strange sight. He then says, “I didn’t think another one of those would show up… but I guess it  _ has _ been maybe a couple of centuries since the last ones…”

Tsuyoshi isn’t sure what to make of it, but he hums in acknowledgement, and doesn’t ask. 

Takeshi does that sometimes. 

He never speaks of himself or his past-- he simply begins talking about them as if it were common knowledge. Sometimes he acknowledges that Tsuyoshi may not know of things-- but he doesn’t take any steps to explain them. Tsuyoshi felt it wrong to chase after reasoning.

Tsuyoshi only listens, and mentally stacks up on the little information he can scrounge up about his son. He’s known this child a rough six years, yet there’s still so much he hasn’t found out. 

But that’s fine. He’ll take what he can get.

-

"Uh, Yamamoto-kun, why-- I mean, when-- what are you doing… there?"

This is a strange town, because apparently, Takeshi isn't the strangest one here. 

Every once in a while, an old god comes by to settle and teach, but only half of the students would recognize who he truly was. The guardian deity of this land is young but alarmingly strict-- maybe that's how this town exists without internal turmoil.

Takeshi has seen towns like these countless times in history, but this was new. So many spirits living in harmony, with the humans never knowing even within its borders and by their sides.

"Oh? Tsuna found me again," he speaks, mostly to himself. 

"Hi- Hibari-san will get, get mad… Hibari-san doesn't like it, when you… or when other people… fuse into… the, the walls and the grounds… so," Tsuna stuttered out as if a word took a mile out of him, "be, be careful… okay?"

To the common folk, what Tsuna was doing was simply as dumb as it looked-- he was  _ talking to a wall. _

Takeshi stretches himself out of the structure, slinging a strong arm over Tsuna’s shoulders.

“Hibari-senpai doesn’t like  _ anything _ I do!” he jokes, laughing out loud, “he’s just tolerating me because he respects everything older than him in town.”

And Tsuna squeaks at the sudden contact.

“Oh, don’t like loud noises?” Takeshi blinks, registering. When he spoke again, his voice was a startling octave lower, “nice to meet you, Tsuna. You have a very strange friend.”

“He-!” Tsuna panicked, “He-- uh, he isn’t my fr-- he’s my home tutor… I- at least I think so…”

Takeshi laughs, and Tsuna almost shrinks into himself again before Takeshi mutters an offhanded sorry at that. 

“That’s nostalgic,” he muses, “though this might be the first time they accidentally get themselves a Fae as an heir.”

Tsuna blinks.

“I think they got themselves a Wrath before,” Takeshi tells him, leading the boy forward so they could start walking towards school, “y’know, from the Seven Sins Lore? Last I heard they managed to get a whole gang together, though they’re in Italy right now.”

Tsuna lets out a noise like a whimper. “I hope… that they never come by…”

Takeshi barks out another laugh. 


End file.
